Brewster Arts Ltd, New York, NY (sold to Meginnity); David L. Meginnity, Class of 1958, Santa Monica, CA and New Smyrna Beach, FL, by 2000; bequest to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2001.
Student Essay for CWR 209 / ART 223 / COM 240 / GSS 277 Along the\nEdge: Leonora Carrington
\n\nPower in the Pair
\n\nReflections on Leonora Carrington’s Twins\n
\n\n What world do these two shrouded figures emerge from? Peering out\nof glowing, golden apertures from the canvas of Leonora Carrington’s Twins (1997),\nhuman faces stare back at us. Deer-like horns atop the cloaks of the twin\nfigures create a sense of hybridity, a realm where animal and human forms are\nmerged. A pair of rectangular legs and triangular feet stem from long dark\ncapes in the foreground. The viewer wonders what is concealed beneath the dark\nrobes? Maybe a clue lies in the central corridor of space that divides the\ncomposition, where a zig-zagging path juts through, halting behind the feet of\nthe figure on the right, providing perspective and suggesting the figures have\nbeen on a journey from beyond. While there is a doubling of forms, the figures\nare not in complete symmetry. One face wears a subtle grin and is found in the\nfigure placed in the background while the other face, which contains a more\nsolemn expression, is found closer in the foreground. Luminescent candles and\ncyan starlight dominate the top half of the painting. The candlesticks that are\na recurring image in Carrington’s work may symbolize her childhood. In\naddition, an object with three petals reminiscent of a shamrock that emerges\nfrom the top of each face, perhaps alludes to her Irish heritage. Standing side\nby side, the two figures evoke a feeling of closeness intimating the iconic duo\nof Carrington’s literary protagonists, Marian and Carmella, in The Hearing\nTrumpet and the friendship Carrington shared with her fellow artist and\nkindred spirit in Mexico, Remedios Varo. Carrington and Varo engaged in\nfrequent collaboration and their meetings served as a mutual source of\ninspiration between the two artists. Perhaps the two figures in Twins\nrepresents the admiration and respect Carrington had for Varo and the gratitude\nshe felt for their life-long companionship.
With a distinct circular halo from a blue-green moon, soft light\nemanates between the two figures creating an ethereal mood and conveying a\nheightened sense of drama and mystery. Rounder more organic forms of the stars and\nmoon alongside the oval faces of the figures contrast with angular, more\ngeometric lines of the square-shaped apertures and flowing capes. The medium of\noil paint allows light to reflect and penetrate the glaze, giving the work a\nluminous quality. The hybrid creatures seem to have arrived at a sacred place\nbeneath the stars that celebrates their graceful and defiant spirit. Twins conveys\na narrative of mysticism, creativity, and devotion to the unconscious mind, and\nperhaps inspires us to never give up the “wonderful strange power” that can be\nfound in harmony with “another inspired being.”[1]
\n\n \n\n \n\nReed Hutchinson, Princeton Class of 2020 \n\n
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[1]\nLeonora Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet (London, U.K: Penguin Modern\nClassics), 1974.
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